Building a More Sustainable, Resilient, Equitable, and Nourishing Food System Proceedings of a Workshop (2021) / Chapter Skim
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4 Resilience of the Food System
4 Resilience of the Food System
Pages 21-32
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From page 21... ...
food system have changed over the years. Beginning after World War II, he elaborated, the system was designed to produce sufficient food to feed society and fuel economic growth; today, the system is also expected to address such goals as environmental sustainability.
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From page 22... ...
emissions requires changes in both production and consumption. He suggested that, in addition to improving the efficiency of fossil fuel production, a goal for consumption should be to shift from wanting "more from less" to wanting "enough from less." Increasing efficiency in production increases both overall production and emissions, he observed, while improving effi ciency and limiting consumption provides "enough from less" and limits emissions.
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From page 23... ...
With respect to the third hypothesis, Porter clarified that increased complexity sometimes leads to increased robustness and resilience and sometimes does not. When systems become more complex and duplicative, he elaborated, they become more robust and resilient, but when they become too complex, some of the robustness and resilience is lost.
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From page 24... ...
Porter explained further that there are trade-offs among wealth, health, consumption, and GHG emissions, and that the Kaya and Kaya-Porter identities can be joined to provide a multidimensional picture of food production and consumption and health. In response to a question from Ebi following his presentation about where increased redundancy is needed in the food system to increase resilience, Porter highlighted the importance of increasing the diversity of food production, distribution, and consumption.
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RESILIENT PROPERTIES OF THE CURRENT FOOD SYSTEM Cynthia Daley, California State University, Chico, spoke about resilient properties of the current food system from the perspective of the farmer. Impact of COVID-19 Daley began by stating that farmers are in a time of crisis as a result of climate change, trade wars, and declines in commodity prices.
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From page 26... ...
She suggested that regenerative agri culture2 could help increase resiliency by increasing soil conservation and reducing emissions, pesticide use, runoff, and nutrient loss. Daley highlighted several programs that she said can help farmers increase resiliency, move toward regenerative agriculture, and reduce GHG emissions.
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RESILIENCY IN THE FUTURE The final speaker of the session, Rosamond Naylor, Stanford University, spoke about resiliency for the future and blue foods, which she defined as foods produced in freshwater and ocean aquatic systems. Resilient Food Systems Naylor defined a resilient food or agriculture system as one that can quickly rebound in response to a stress or shock.
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From page 28... ...
Ebi asked a question about how climate change will be incorporated into the blue foods assessment, given the impact of rising ocean temperatures and acidification. In response, Naylor stated that the assessment will address climate vulnerability given that climate change can impact fish physiology, pests, and pathogens, and that storms and floods are risky for aquaculture as for all food production systems.
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From page 29... ...
She mentioned a farmer peer network in Iowa that leverages social connections to make change. In addition, she pointed to a need for more research on what public policy changes are needed to drive global shifts in the food production system.
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In addition, she pointed to nutrient labeling regulations that prohibit identifying the superior nutrient density of foods produced in certain ways as a disincentive for changing production
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As an example of a process that could change the current economic system, she cited the recent protests over racial equity and social justice as a bottom-up approach. Finally, she pointed to the question of who can afford to eat clean, safe food as a global social justice issue, with some populations being forced to put having access to safe food second to having access to food at all.
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From page 32... ...
Food Safety Ebi asked the panelists a set of questions from audience members about how to ensure food safety and reduce contamination, including microplastics in the ocean and lead in the soil. Daley suggested the use of remediation measures to remove heavy metals from foods from contaminated soils, noting that some work has been done on bioengineering of biological tools to make them useful for this purpose.
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